Beas tragedy: 1 more body recovered, search enters 4th day

Mandi, Jun 12: The body of one more engineering student from Hyderabad was retrieved today even as the search operation following the

in Beas river resumed on the fourth day with 18 persons still missing.

The body was badly trapped between rocks and rescue teams had a difficult time retrieving it from the river. The deceased was identified as T Upendra by his parents, said RS Negi, the Mandi SP. With this, the number of bodies recovered since the mishap on June 9 has risen to seven while 18 persons, 17 students and the co-tour leader, are still missing.

Bodies of four boys and three girls have been recovered so far. Fourteen boys and three girls are still missing after students from an engineering college in Hyderabad were swept away in the river following the sudden release of water by Larji Project authorities.

The melting of snow in the higher hills has meant that the discharge of water in the Beas has increased and more than 550 rescue workers from various agencies are engaged in the massive search operations under the supervision of the National Disaster Response Force.

National Disaster Management Authority vice chairman M Shashidhar Reddy, who has reached the accident site to oversee rescue operations, confirmed that one body was recovered today. He said that all assistance would be provided for the search operation and more equipment and men would if needed be involved.

Telangana Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy has been camping in Mandi for the past three days along with the parents and kin of the missing students as the rescue operations continue.

About 60 students and faculty members of Hyderabad's VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology were on an excursion to Manali on Sunday evening when 25 members of the group, mostly students, were washed away in flash floods, following the sudden release of water from the reservoir of the Larji hydropower project.

PTI